Olive oil importers are at war with local growers over a $300,000 “Buy Aussie" campaign which claims the domestic product is fresher and healthier.

The case is with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission after the Australian Olive Oil Association, which mainly represents importers, complained about advertisements fronted by nutritionist
Joanna McMillan
.

“Many European oils are chemically refined and 90 per cent of imported brands have failed the Australian standard," she said in a television advertisement launched in early December.

The print and TV ad campaign is sponsored by a group representing local growers, the Olive Oil Association.

Olive Oil Association chief executive
Lisa Rowntree
said the ads aimed to inform consumers that the labels on many imported products are misleading because foreign producers do not meet voluntary Australian standards.

She said the problem is that imported products are often refined. That is, the first extraction produces extra virgin olive oil but subsequent ones produce a “refined" product that is labelled here as pure, light or extra light. Some foreign producers combine olive oil with extra virgin olive oil, which is then labelled simply as olive oil, Ms Rowntree said.

Deodorised, bleached and chemically extracted isn’t ‘pure’

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“The word pure, for instance, conjures up images of pure water or something of the highest quality.

“It is misleading to call a product that is deodorised, bleached and chemically extracted pure."

The Olive Oil Association represents local growers; the Australian Olive Oil Association represents mainly importers but also some local growers.

Australian growers produced nearly 20 million litres of olive oil last year, and overall supermarket sales of all olive oil was valued at $220 million.

However, most of the olive oil consumed in Australia comes from overseas.

The importer group has taken particular umbrage with the claim that Australian made olive oils are healthier or fresher, describing the campaign as “self-interested and untruthful".

“Country of origin alone is not a determinant of the health benefits of olive oil," Australian Olive Oil Association president
David Valmorbida
wrote in a complaint letter lodged with the ACCC before Christmas.

All imported olive oil meets the international standard

He says all imported olive oil meets the international standard and the voluntary Australian code is in many ways a lesser standard. Further, refined olive oil is not “bad". It costs less and is used for cooking because it has a higher smoke point temperature.

Mr Valmorbida urged the ACCC to act against a “sustained effort by the Australian Olive Association in recent years to damage the reputation of imported olive oil to the sole benefit of its members who represent less than a quarter of olive oil sold in Australia".

In May 2012, the ACCC fined The Big Olive Company $13,200 for labelling products as “extra virgin olive oil" when they were not.

ACCC tests indicated that one batch of “Oz Olio" oil was not extra virgin olive oil because it contained more free fatty acids than permitted by olive oil trade standards, including the voluntary Australian standard.

The Australian standard was approved by Standards Australia in 2011 but is voluntary.

Ms Rowntree denied her group was trying to lock others out of the market.

“We know we cannot replace imports with the volume of trees we’ve got at the moment.

“We are more than happy to support any importer who wants to do the right thing in Australia. But what we won’t tolerate is being the dumping ground for this cheap product masquerading as something it’s not."